If this really is based in OpenGL and not some weird licensed Apple crap cause they think everything should be made in house, about 1 step. The beauty of this is Steam is a self contained program, so all games installed through Steam, exist within the Steam program.

That basically means if they can get it installed and the connection to the internet working correctly, Linux is completely doable.

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it is based on opengl actually. source engine has had the capability for some time now.. you can run tf2/l4d in opengl mode with a command line of "-gl"

the hard part is porting the actual steam platform and game binaries etc to mac..

If no one has answered you yet, MAC OS-x is based on linux/unix type systems so you will have to get a mac specific version.

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i highly doubt it, since steam games can be installed as many times as wanted on any computer.. as long as you can authenticate your account login with steam servers and your steam account has a valid copy of the game attached to it, you should be able to download and play it, regardless of os.. the steam play feature being introduced alongside this update supports the idea..

it is based on opengl actually. source engine has had the capability for some time now.. you can run tf2/l4d in opengl mode with a command line of "-gl"

the hard part is porting the actual steam platform and game binaries etc to mac..

i'm sure linux isn't far away, since os x is based on darwin linux..

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Not sure about this:

That is only true for Valve games and some games that were released on OS X, but most of the 3rd party games do not offer OpenGL as a option. If Steam/Valve is serious about this, they will either have to start some serious negotiations or force DX10/9 games to run as OpenGL and that is what is going to take some doing. Otherwise, just rebuilding the plateform to offer Valve games on Mac OSX would not take that much work, since as you stated, all Valve games will run in DX and OpenGL.

That is only true for Valve games and some games that were released on OS X, but most of the 3rd party games do not offer OpenGL as a option. If Steam/Valve is serious about this, they will either have to start some serious negotiations or force DX10/9 games to run as OpenGL and that is what is going to take some doing. Otherwise, just rebuilding the plateform to offer Valve games on Mac OSX would not take that much work, since as you stated, all Valve games will run in DX and OpenGL.

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well of course.. basically what valve is doing here, is moving the actual steam platform to mac. this way, they can promote and host games made for macs. they are using their own games as examples of games that can be run on both platforms, but for all of the other games, it is up to the developers to come up with emulations/new binaries/etc... if they want to serve a larger consumer base..

well of course.. basically what valve is doing here, is moving the actual steam platform to mac. this way, they can promote and host games made for macs. they are using their own games as examples of games that can be run on both platforms, but for all of the other games, it is up to the developers to come up with emulations/new binaries/etc... if they want to serve a larger consumer base..

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Don't crush my dreams for Mac users with your logic and truth. I was looking forward to killing pretentious Mac guys in BFBC2 because they annoy me (I mean that literally cause I work in customer service. I know that does not apply to all Mac users. Some are pretty damn cool, but the ones that call me are.....well pretentious douches).

I guess we just have to admit it now. This will only bring Valve games to Mac. Most other 3rd party games from the older library will be a no go, most of the cool indie titles are OpenGL anyway, so we get those, but the bulk of their library are DX platform only and 95% of them will not recode a damn thing to expand their market into a quote "small portion of the computer community and even smaller segment of the gaming sub-community."

They will simply claim redevelopment and maintenance will cost too much to do with current titles, but may consider it in the future depending on how Valve does with this. It is a dick move, but it is safe to let Valve test the waters before jumping in head first.

I also think Valve should wait and launch this with a new title like Half-Life 2 Episode 3 or Team Fortress 3 or Portal 2: Epic Awesomeness, because launching the platform with nothing new or fresh is just a bad idea.

Don't crush my dreams for Mac users with your logic and truth. I was looking forward to killing pretentious Mac guys in BFBC2 because they annoy me (I mean that literally cause I work in customer service. I know that does not apply to all Mac users. Some are pretty damn cool, but the ones that call me are.....well pretentious douches).

I guess we just have to admit it now. This will only bring Valve games to Mac. Most other 3rd party games from the older library will be a no go, most of the cool indie titles are OpenGL anyway, so we get those, but the bulk of their library are DX platform only and 95% of them will not recode a damn thing to expand their market into a quote "small portion of the computer community and even smaller segment of the gaming sub-community."

They will simply claim redevelopment and maintenance will cost too much to do with current titles, but may consider it in the future depending on how Valve does with this. It is a dick move, but it is safe to let Valve test the waters before jumping in head first.

I also think Valve should wait and launch this with a new title like Half-Life 2 Episode 3 or Team Fortress 3 or Portal 2: Epic Awesomeness, because launching the platform with nothing new or fresh is just a bad idea.

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portal 2 is coming out

companies building games in opengl will probably port for mac so as to become more popular and what not..

however, the big companies may or may not bite.. i think blizzard might venture into the mac market.. since they have like wow for mac etc..

one thing is for sure however.. with the steam distribution platform expanding to cover macs, we will be seeing more multi-platform games coming out soon..

i highly doubt it, since steam games can be installed as many times as wanted on any computer.. as long as you can authenticate your account login with steam servers and your steam account has a valid copy of the game attached to it, you should be able to download and play it, regardless of os.. the steam play feature being introduced alongside this update supports the idea..

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What I mean to say is, it will be a special mac version of the program, if you already own the game then yeah it be fucked up crazy for steam to not allow you to download it for a different OS.

But then again they are a business, and businesses are evil sometimes.

What I mean to say is, it will be a special mac version of the program, if you already own the game then yeah it be fucked up crazy for steam to not allow you to download it for a different OS.

But then again they are a business, and businesses are evil sometimes.

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Not Valve. They are neutral and misunderstood.

I mean, I still don't get your question, but yes this will be a special version of Steam for Mac users. The games installed will, for the most part not be the special version; however, games that will not run in OpenGL as the graphical software interface will not run on Mac OSX. Valve games already run in DX and OpenGL so it will be the exact same file system as currently in place. Other companies like EA, THQ, and 2K games will need to restructure some of the game to get it to run on OpenGL.

Actually altering the code properly will take time and money and I personally don't see any company volunteering to do that out the gate (as seen in discussion above); however, implementing a translator to just convert DX commands to OpenGL works, but at the cost of performance. I can see the second wave of companies that decide to join Valve in this using this path for current and older single player games.

Sorry, wishful thinking. Lets just leave this as Win for Mac, win for PC gaming (since someone still cares, thank you Valve), and hope others will jump on board with this whole heartedly in the near future.

This still seems wrong to me. I mean OpenGL future development die some time ago. Will this revitalize the effort to improve it and bring it up to date so to speak. Mac uses OpenGL for games to an extent, but isn't their default graphics API something else?

"The games installed will, for the most part not be the special version"

Surely they would have to be other wise illegal copies of left 4 dead( and other games) would be playable on mac?

Its not just the DX/open GL etc I'm pretty sure OS-X doesn't even use .exe files.

( don't quote me on that, been years since I've used one )

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I am not sure Steam does either. I mean the Steam platform is lauched with an .exe, but the games are not stored in a "normal method". Instead of .exe files and folders, it creates icon links to directories and libraries within Steam. So, like you I am not sure, but I don't think that will be an issue.

Mac is unix based, not linux based and i have a mac. It would be nice if steam let you install it anyway on the mac without re-buying it.

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We know. Linux is based on Unix as well. At the core, they are the same. It just a different implementation. Many parts, API systems, and general design of how the OS works are nearly identical. So in large, going from Mac to Linux is not that big a jump because they are cousins at this point.

This is really cool , but i really don't think that Mac have any chance to get a good image quality or performance , this is why all pro computer users and hardcore players go to PC.
also there is no way to get the same graphics level of DirectX on OpenGL.

didnt know Macs decided to become a "gaming" type computer. i mean with all there cheesy "i" products. there users think highly of themsevles just because they can afford an overpriced computer with the exact same hardware as a pc but the only thing holding them back is their OS. the physical appearance of a mac looks great, the inside ehh looks like they had a war inside. Companies like dell, hp, levano, etc etc are shit. i guess im so use to building my own, i hardly pay any attention to any computer companies out there.

If anything, this will help OpenGL. Mac's development as a gaming platform will make developers choose GL to minimize effort in porting their games to Mac. In due course that could also invite Linux ports. Epic with its Linux-Windows versions of Unreal Tournament (upto UT2K4) make it look a little too easy to cater to two platforms using the same disc. There's just two sets of 50 MB executable parts, same resources.

I don’t think that game developers will go for OpenGL just because of the 4% of users "Mac users around the world" , also I am sure that developers don't even think about losing that level of visual and graphics effects of the DirectX and go for OpenGL they know that all gamers don’t want to see new game with low graphics level they always looking for better graphics lvl. and now even Nvidia and ATI are ignoring the OpenGL and building their GPUs on DirectX11 and OCL spec for GPGPU.